“The American shopping mall, so potent a symbol of suburban activity and social interaction, is melting away at an alarming rate,” wrote architecture critic Paul Goldberger in 2019. “A quarter or more of America’s malls are likely to close within the next decade, leaving empty shells of what were once massive BOX stores and community gathering places.” Behind this scene is no tidy story of renewal, but one that illuminates conflicts over economics, public spaces, and values that we choose to support and sacrifice.
Even as some of these transformations appear to make a tremendous amount of sense and are almost inevitable because of the advent of e-commerce and automation, others appear to ask quite troubling questions about who ought to benefit and who ought to sustain the cost. As was the function concerning warehousing and the like, they also signal a kind of shift, perhaps from public spaces to something which is quite privatized and industrialized, and at times quite controversial.
1. Amazon in Former Malls
About 25 malls were repurcuated as FCs by Amazon from 2016-2019, but this is increasing rapidly recently. For instance, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, there is a 3.4 million sq. ft. distribution center on the premises that drew so much crowd to Cortana Mall over the weekend, besides the 220,000 sq. ft. center on the premises of yet another mall in Knoxville, Tennessee. As mall rents can be as low as $4 per sq. ft. compared to $20 for a separate department store, space does not appear to be a problem for the logistics behemoth that Amazon has created. The irony, of course, is: this is the same company which played so large a role in the death of the retail experience and is now taking over the ruins.
2. Immigration Detention Centers in Closed Facilities
There are at least 16 state and federal facilities that have been used or converted into Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities since 2017. The conversion of the Moshannon Valley Correctional Center into the largest detention facility for Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the region by The GEO Group is only one of these. It has been noted that more than 90% of the detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are housed within facilities operated by private companies by mid-2023. The financial rewards are substantial, with GEO having over a billion dollars in federal government contracts in 2021 alone. Nevertheless, financial gain comes with cost, where an influx of immigrants will continue to go through impoverished environments that can create an endless cycle of abuse when such a history exists in these facilities.
3. Data Centers Taking Over Retail Space
Former location of a mall in the state of Maryland, now scheduled for a data center campus of 4.1 million sq. ft. This indicates a burst of growth in the data center infrastructure at a national level. The controlled environment and vast size of the facilities are attractive for the location of server farms due to the recent demand for processing from AI. Findings also show that data centers in California are located where the highest amounts of diesel particulate matter emissions are found. However, data center emissions from backup generators pose health risks, as estimated by a study in 2024 to reach approximately 600,000 cases of asthma attacks by the year 2030. Translocation of data center sites from malls to machine rooms confirm that society is adopting digital infrastructure at the expense of its health.
4. The Private Prison Industry’s Real Estate Plan
CoreCivic and GEO Group are taking steps to increase bed space capacity at their detention centers. GEO Group reopened operations at four facilities during the year 2025 and expected an annual contribution of $240 million. CoreCivic’s South Texas Family Residential Center, having 2,400 bed space capacity, is an example of how quickly they can transform undervalued lands. This is facilitated by a long history of government spending on detention infrastructure that is now reaching a staggering level of $45 billion at ICE under this budget cycle, and this infrastructure is likely difficult to reverse. This transformation of existing buildings to detention centers changes their use but incorporates them into detention politics.
5. Conversions in Homeless Shelters: With Complex Real
Certain malls that are not occupied are now repurcuated to act as homeless shelters, for example, at the Landmark Mall in the state of Virginia, where the former Macy’s building now serves as a homeless shelter. It seems to be a positive move to use the buildings for homeless people; however, the situation is not that simple. As explained by its advocates, permanent supportive housing is a more practical option than temporary relief shelters. The conversion of a commercialexspace into a functional living space is, however, a costly endeavor that entails plumbing, ventilation, and lighting, as it is a rarity despite the presence of unused available floor space.
6. Disappearance of Public Community Spaces
Malls were previously considered ‘inherently public spaces’ and civic hubs in an informal sort of way. This was basically the place where ‘teens loitered, seniors came to get their exercise, and families gathered. The act itself of transforming this space into a warehouse, detention center, or data center devalues this social aspect. Currently, ‘68 percent of all Americans live within an hour of a ‘dead mall,’ but the areas that originally comprised these spaces for socializing continue to increasingly secure themselves. Rather, the location where the fountains and food courts are situated can now house truck bays and security fences, thus not only altering the landscape of the area but also its society.
7. Economic Trade-Offs for Local Communities
The shopping malls have provided economic benefits in terms of sale tax stimulation, jobs, and community activities. In another case, tax money comes into the community in terms of property tax, but sales tax is forfeited. In 2018, according to an Economic Policy Institute report, counties with an Amazon location showed 30% greater employment in two years in these facilities, although these jobs are lower-paying than those they replaced. This represents an economic degradation because it goes from customer service, which indirectly represents greater social value, to lower-paying jobs and physically demanding jobs.
8. Zoning Disputes and Municipal Resistance
The location of industries represents noise, heavy truck traffic, and other environmental opposing factors, conflicting with commercial zoning. There is pressure to approve changes because an emptied building can be considered an example of environmental blight, not withstanding that it will disturb the community. The capacity to control hours involving truck delivery or use can mitigate, but getting value for money from an emptied, unused building is essential. These conflicting elements indicate the challenge of balancing the economic viability of redevelopment with the viability of the area being livable, given the large gap that exists in the future use of the land contrary to its former use.
9. Green Space Redevelopment as an Alternative
In other cities, the conversion of malls that are abandoned for other locations, for example, green spaces like wetlands, has occurred. In Columbus, Ohio, the conversion of a 6-acre park over a failed downtown mall led to the development of projects amounting to $400 million. In Meridian, Conn, the storm water park that replaced the creek-fronting mall reduced the number of property owners affected by flood by hundreds. Despite the project not compensating for the cost the government has been unable to get by investing into the project, the project may end up attracting residents, among other things.
In the context of malls, the projects show that even their locations can be repurposed for the good of the community. The repurposing of the dead malls can be seen as the mirror that reflects the growth of society – from socialization to industry, socialization to security. Indeed, even as other projects occur for the improved benefit of society, the fact remains that the project has come to displace the social environments into ones that are more focused on the interests of profit rather than effectiveness. Indeed, the decisions made in the future will not only change the landscape but the social environment for the next generations.
